“The goal is not to win audience through fancy multimedia effects, but to stimulate reflection. The rich interactive options available to us today need to support the process, not stifle it.”

This quote caught my attention for two reasons. Firstly, because it’s oh so true - how many times have you seen interactions in eLearning courses with no real purpose? But secondly because I was sure I’d read it before. And that’s probably because we gave almost the same advice in our blog ‘8 mistakes you may be making with your eLearning design’ last year.

So, what’s changed?

Simply put, not much. It is as important today, as it was five years ago, to make sure interactions add value to your eLearning. And if they don’t? Leave them out.

Although the job of the eLearning developer is harder; we now have even more interactions to play with – and when they can be really fun, like the dial interaction in Storyline, it’s even harder to leave them out.

Accessibility, accessibility, accessibility!

At Learning Technologies 2018, Helen Tyson, Senior Trainer here at Omniplex hosted a seminar on ‘Reducing visual stress in eLearning: Accessibility in Articulate Storyline’ and I can’t help but wonder if she got her inspiration from a 2014 blog of ours.

In this blog we discussed the key tips to encourage and engage dyslexic students such as using readable fonts, adjusting column widths, proper graphics and avoiding blinking text – which will also help bring clarity to a page.

So, what’s changed?

The principles in this blog stand as true today as they did when it was first published. eLearning can be a great avenue for engaging learners with visual stress or dyslexia, but it is paramount that courses are created with accessibility in mind.

However, the tools we use to create eLearning have come on a long way since then, and we can quickly and easily make our courses more accessible. To learn how to do this, check out our blog post, here.

Social learning

Since 2013, we have been advising our readers that humans are social learners by design and encouraging our readers to embrace social learning to help their organisation work smarter and faster.

You might have read this post thinking sowhat haschanged in the world of eLearning in the last five years? And the answer is so much.

The tools we use to create eLearning have greatly improved. This time five years ago we were creating our courses on Articulate Storyline 2. Now, we have a whole host of tools to develop with in Articulate 360, including Storyline, Studio and Rise.

The increase in responsive learning is largely based on the fact our learners have changed significantly in the last five years. Our youngest learners are digital natives and expect a lot from their eLearning courses. They will expect to access their courses on any device, anywhere – and as eLearning developers, we need to cater to that.

Finally, L&D professionals are now demanding more from their eLearning tools. According to Docebo’s whitepaper on eLearning trends for 2018, people are switching their learning management systems as they’re searching for improved user and administrative experience, more reporting functionalities and further integrations. Putting pressure on eLearning solutions providers to meet their needs and exceed expectations.

So, new technology and tools, digital native learners and tougher demands on eLearning tools have changed eLearning in the past five years. Coupling this with our improved understanding of what works in eLearning, and the acceptance of eLearning within organisations, means we’ve come a long way in the past five years.

So, how do you think eLearning has changed in the past five years? Let us know @OmniplexeLearn or drop us an email to learning@omniplex.co we’d love to know your thoughts!

Is your eLearning in need of a refresh? At Omniplex we have a whole team of eLearning specialists ready to help you refresh your eLearning. Interested? Get in touch.